Iemand91

Yes, a 'bare' motherboard is often helpfull in making a power efficient system. That motherboard however has only 1 M.2. I would like to have 2, one for cache SSD and one for Coral TPU. I saw this video today: Again, N100 doesn't look al that power efficient. So basically, if you can stomach the extra cost for a I3 system, it would run just as efficient, if not better.

Yeah, to make the system as power efficiënt as possible, you have to have the right BIOS settings, and that's what's holding me back for the most part. Other than that, those N100 NAS builds look quite interesting...

It's probably a typo, but on Aliexpress there are some N100 NAS/cases with 2 M.2 slots, instead of only 1. For example: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006248195092.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.3.60361ea3512QWF&algo_pvid=3bd61190-af04-4e4f-a5e8-8df7ba0ad013&algo_exp_id=3bd61190-af04-4e4f-a5e8-8df7ba0ad013-1&pdp_npi=4%40dis!EUR!293.88!205.72!!!309.71!!%40211b600c17022409276411817e3216!12000036459523229!sea!NL!143974031!&curPageLogUid=FfMB5h4wJFTJ Like I said, it's probably a typo or at least incorrect, since all those builds look the same, so some having 2 instead of 1 M.2 slot seems unlikely. Would make those systems a lot more interesting (possibility for both a SSD and Coral TPU). Still some concerns with these cases, I've seen an "interesting" build quality picture, no idea if you can play with BIOS/C-state etc. settings to make it as power efficiënt as possible, and the idea of the N100 is powerfull enough (compared to the I3-12100). So, I'm not *really* in a rush, so still looking around....

Those AOOSTAR cases look really cool, both this new one and the previous one with 2 drive bays. Price not bad either (at least, the 2 bay one, this new one is unknown). However, the 2 bay has only 1 M.2 slot so no option for TPU (when m.2 in use for SSD). The 4 bay case maybe; you *can* fit a TPU in the E-key slot, but you likely need a special adapter that is not (yet?) available. See: https://github.com/magic-blue-smoke/Dual-Edge-TPU-Adapter And I wonder if you can make those system as power efficient (BIOS settings) like you can with a well known motherboard brand. And last but not least; AOOSTAR does not ship to Europe.😒

No, not really. Can you easily run Unraid on those? Looks a bit like Xpenology; a bit 'hackery' is it not? The Lincstation is cool, but not really a solution for me. It uses all M2 or 2.5" drives. 2.5" drives are relatively small and SMR instead of CMR. And going with an all SSD solution is going to be very expensive. Cool case! Also reminds me of the AOOSTAR NAS. I'm not nearly close to deciding what to choose/do. I don't have high or unique demands or wishes. 1 big HDD, 1 SSD for cache and maybe in the future another HDD for parity. Backups on an external drive. A N100 CPU (or equivalent) seems plenty powerfull (more powerfull than any of our current PC/laptops we use, a i3-12100 would be 3x more powerfull). Even having a handfull of IP-camera's and using things like Frigate (and related stuff like Double Take, CompreFace, Who's At My Feeder) and other apps/services I would love to tinker with, the N100 would likely be fine for that, and the i3 overkill. I think both systems would make it physically possible to install 2 3.5" drives, 1 SSD and the adapter for the dual TPU (in the N100 system in the PCIe slot, with the i3 system either PCIe or m.2 slot. There's just a lot for me to think about...

€109 for a 8TB Western Digital Elements external drive. I'll look furter into this.

8TB Element drives are CMR drives. And I've seen some good reviews and experiences with shuck Elements (recertified) drives. I'll have to let this sink in and think about it. The costs of the total system is rising every day, I was planning on building a system to a similar cost (or slightly more) of a entry-level Synology/Qnap...

Yeah, I've read that before. N100 looked like a great relatively powerfull, cheap CPU with low power consumption, but in practice, not so much. Which is a shame, because the N100 is probably plenty powerfull for my usecase (it's CPU benchmarks are higher than any of our PC's/laptops😬). And MUCH cheaper. Yep. My little research shows this too. The only way I could possible need the PCIe slot, is for the Coral TPU. Those adapters that work for the dual TPU fit in either PCIe slot or the M.2 slot. Right. So just to make life easier, try to use Intel controller. Yeah, I'll definitely look around. Black Friday is upon us too. Which is a shame, because 2.5" drives are MUCH more power efficient than 3.5" drives. You can run a couple of 2.5" drives for one 3.5" drive. So to summarize, skip the Intel N100 and go for the i3. Find a motherboard with Intel controller and use 3.5" drives. Is using WD recertified external drives a good idea? I've seen some good reviews on those and they are much cheaper.

Hi, new here. I've looked at Unraid in the past and got interested in it, but never really 'needed' it. However, last week my Qnap TS-212 lit a red LED for it's 2nd drive. Qnap's test shows it to be OK, but still says the drive status is abnormal and should be replaced. It's a Qnap TS-212 with 2 WD 2TB drives in JBOD (so effectively 4TB of usable space. I've about 700GB space left, but I am planning of digitizing ~2000+ slides/negatives which would probably fill that space right up. I could just replace the disk and continue with the Qnap, but it's getting old and I can't use any of the cool apps/services with it anymore. I would like to use the system for the following: - Storage of TV-shows and movies - Usenet/Radarr/Sonarr etc. - (Automatic) backup for 1 PC and 2 laptops (don't know how yet, but maybe something like Syncthing would be sufficient) - (Automatic) backup for 3 smartphones (mainly photo's (DCIM folder) as an alternative to Dropbox backup/Google Photos) - I've got some Dahua IP-camera's (and NVR). Would like to look into Frigate or Scrypted for its AI object detection. - Some sort of photomanager. Don't know which one (Photoprism, Immich, LibrePhotos or something similar) - Support for the Coral Dual TPU. Seems I would need an adapter to use both TPU's, for example an adapter for the PCIe x1 slot or m.2 2280 B+M key. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but it understand the TPU can only be used by one service/program at the time. So Frigate/Scrypted could use one, and the 2nd TPU could be used by for example a photomanager app/service (I heard some can use the TPU) Would love to dive in several apps/services etc. Unraid has to offer, but all in due time. The whole system should be power/energy efficient, hopefully similar to the TS-212. Looking around online, I've made up 2 systems, one with an Intel N100 and one with a i3-12100. N100: ASRock N100M Crucial CT16G4DFRA32A 16GB DDR4 Mini-box picoPSU-150-XT WD Green SN350 1TB i3-12100: Intel i3-12100 ASUS Prime B660M-A D4 Mini-box picoPSU-150-XT WD Green SN350 1TB As for the case, not that important right now, but preferably something small and cheap, maybe Kolink Satellite. As for storage; 8TB would be more than enough. I was thinking of buying a WD Elements 8TB external drive, a recertified one from WD itself and shuck it. (much cheaper then a new internal/external 8TB drive) Use that drive for the array, and the SSD for cache. Later down the line maybe a 2nd WD 8TB for parity. I know 2.5" drives are much more power eficient but price per TB is much higher, and all high capacity 2.5" drives are SMR and not CMR, and I understand SMR is not good to use with Unraid. But since I don't access the NAS much, those 3.5" drives would be idle/spun down most of the day anyway. Most of the time only a day to move any new/changed files from the cache SSD to the array. So hopefully, that would help with lowering the power usage. I have a separate, 4TB Seagate external drive that I use for a complete backup of the Qnap NAS. (with it's internal backup service; so basically an exact copy of the NAS drives). When all files transferred to the Unraid system, I plan to use that 4TB Seagate drive for backups again. When done, that drive is stored at a family member's house. (so off-site backup) Total cost of the N100 system would be around €320 and for the i3-12100 around €450. (I'm from The Netherlands). Those prices exclude the hard drives and Coral TPU (and adapter and power supply). So the i3 system is much more powerfull, the motherboard gives a bit more options (2 M.2 slots instead of 1, 4 SATA ports instead of 1 and Intel network controller instead of Realtek RTL8111H (I understand Intel NIC is better when using Unraid?) and with the right (BIOS) settings the i3 system is probably as power efficiënt as the Intel N100 system. The N100 system however is much cheaper and probably still plenty powerfull enough for me. I've seen the N100 being mentioned being used with Frigate, people having half a dozen camera's and still barely any CPU usage. And Frigate would probably use the most CPU resources on my system, if I would use it in the first place (the Dahua NVR is working fine, but Frigate/Scrypted looks interesting with the AI object detection) Something like the new AOOSTAR R1 looks great to, but no way to fit the Coral TPU and most of all, they don't ship the thing to Europe. So has anyone been in the same boat as I am and might be of help, steering me in the right direction? N100 versus i3-12100? 2.5" drives versus 3.5". Dual TPU in combination with Unraid? Thanks!